Jaxson Dart Debuts Slick Custom Jordan Cleats As QB Battle With Spencer Sanders Heats Up, Players Arrive Back At Ole Miss

Jaxson Dart is the incumbent starting quarterback for Ole Miss football. He does not plan on losing that title ahead of the 2023 season, and by all accounts, he hasn't. Yet, at least.

Not only is Dart dropping dimes, the 20-year-old signal-caller is looking sweet while doing so. 'Bird,' a Charleston-based artist/designer, recently showed off a new pair of custom cleats that he made for Dart.

The powder blue and red Jordans are slick.

Jaxson Dart will hope that his new cleats will propel him forward as...

... Ole Miss' quarterback competition continues!

Dart is in his second year with the Rebels. The former four-star recruit initially committed to play at USC and started six games for the Trojans as a freshman before hopping in the transfer portal and heading south.

Although Dart's first year in Oxford did not go as well as he, or the staff, may have hoped, the rising junior will be the first to own his mistakes. There were growing pains, but he still managed to throw for 2,974 yards and 20 touchdowns on a 62.4% completion clip.

The 11 interceptions and five losses were not ideal, but a lot of FBS programs would sign the dotted line for an 8-5 season as soon as it was offered. It was still a good year, just not a great year, per se.

Dart made a lot of ridiculous throws like this:

Ole Miss saw backup quarterback Luke Altmeyer hit the portal shortly after the season, which left Lane Kiffin with a void at the most important position in football. So what did he do?

The Rebels added Walker Howard, a former five-star prospect, and Spencer Sanders, a four-year Power Five starter, through the transfer portal. Ole Miss has arguably the most-loaded quarterback room in the country.

Kiffin is a firm believer in competition and was/is excited about the trio he has at his disposal.

Howard, a redshirt sophomore, is the prodigy in waiting and probably will not see much time this fall. That isn't to say that the former LSU Tiger couldn't play his way into the starting job with an unbelievable fall camp, because the hype is very real, but it is unlikely.

Jaxson Dart and Spencer Sanders are battling it out.

Both quarterbacks had good days and bad days during spring practice, but it was Dart that solidified himself as the frontrunner. Sanders was dealing with a nagging shoulder issue that kept him from throwing throughout portions of the spring period, which wasn't ideal, and he never quite made enough of a move to overtake the guy who had already played in the system.

Entering the spring game, it was very clear that Jaxson Dart was QB1. That is still the case.

HOWEVER — the competition is not over.

Dart did not play particularly well in the spring game, though not poorly. He completed 18-of-37 passes for 302 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions, while rushing three times for 19 yards.

Sanders, on the other hand, looked like the dark-horse Heisman Trophy candidate that he was in Stillwater for the first time all spring. He finished 19-of-27 for 265 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, while rushing six times for 72 yards and a score.

Considering that Sanders was a senior, he could have re-entered the transfer portal during the April window and gone elsewhere as a graduate transfer if the staff had informed him that Dart was their guy, or if he felt like he couldn't win the job. That is not what happened. Sanders is still in Oxford.

Thus, the quarterback battle will continue into fall camp.

Ole Miss players will report back to campus in less than a week. Summer workouts will begin, before fall camp starts in August.

As of this writing, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, Jaxson Dart is still firmly in the driver's seat when it comes to the starting job. It is his to lose, and he has made it abundantly clear that he will not relent.

Jaxson Dart on Instagram in early May, after spring practice.

With that being said, Sanders came alive in the spring game after dealing with a shoulder injury and failing to shine through how he might have hoped during practices. There is a legitimate open competition to be had, and Dart is set to arrive in a fresh pair of cleats.